Progress monitoring
Progress Monitoring refers to tracking a child's academic growth over time. Typically, a graph is created to display the child's average weekly performance on novel (i.e., untaught) passages. Visual trends across time are examined to determine if the child is on the right track; otherwise a change in the intervention may be warranted. To aid these decisions, an aim-line is drawn from the child's current level to a future point, with the slope of the aim-line representing an increase of 1.5 correct words per minute per week (Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, Walz, & Germann, 1993). If three consecutive weekly scores are below the aim-line, additional intervention time or content may be needed. If the child reaches a target performance level, intervention time or content may be reduced or eliminated. The following are suggested end-of-school year performance goals, based on norms reported by Hasbrouck and Tindal (2005):
- First grade: 53 cwpm
- Second grade: 89 cwpm
- Third grade: 107 cwpm
- Fourth grade: 123 cwpm
- Fifth grade: 139 cwpm
- Sixth grade: 150 cwpm